Image ProcessingApplication · Image Processing Project

CVE-2020-21573

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-11-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
An issue was discoverered in in abhijitnathwani image-processing v0.1.0, allows local attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted image file.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · low confidence

A denial of service vulnerability exists in abhijitnathwani image-processing library v0.1.0 where processing a specially crafted image file can cause the application to crash or become unresponsive. The vulnerability is locally exploitable, requiring the attacker to supply a malicious image file to the affected software.

MitigationSince the library version v0.1.0 appears to be unmaintained, users should migrate to a actively maintained image processing library with security updates. If continued use is required, implement strict input validation and resource limits on image processing operations to mitigate DoS risks.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Image ProcessingApplication
Affected:= 0.1.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if image-processing library is installed
    Run 'pip show image-processing' or check your requirements.txt/dependencies file for the 'image-processing' package from abhijitnathwani
    Affected if The library is present in your environment or dependencies
  2. Verify the installed version
    Run 'pip show image-processing' and look for the Version field, or run 'pip list | grep image-processing'
    Affected if Version equals 0.1.0 exactly
  3. Confirm image processing is actually used
    Search your codebase for imports like 'import image_processing' or 'from image_processing import' and verify the image processing functions are called in your application logic
    Affected if Your code imports and calls functions from this library to process images
  4. Check if user-supplied images can reach the library
    Review your application code to see if image files from external sources (uploads, API requests, user-provided paths) are passed to the image_processing library functions
    Affected if Your application processes image files that originate from users or untrusted sources using this library

You are affected if the image-processing library version 0.1.0 is installed and your code uses it to process image files from user or external sources.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Since the library version v0.1.0 appears to be unmaintained, users should migrate to a actively maintained image processing library with security updates. If continued use is required, implement strict input validation and resource limits on image processing operations to mitigate DoS risks.

Fix this in Image Processing Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-21573 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data